Definitely an adventure I will never forget, and never repeat. Once was enough
Here is a little video I put together of the trip.

https://vimeo.com/80596629














I enjoyed hunting the Ibex more than anything else on the trip. I think I may have found a new obsession.

Bobby,

Great video, thanks for sharing it. I am curious though, why not repeat the hunt and why only three days hunting?

Best

Bobby,

Congratulations, outstanding video and trophies.

Great film clip, thanks for sharing

the travel is just a nightmare. you just feel beat down by the time you get to camp. and you seem to never fully recover.

you arrive in Dushanbe at 4am, then you have a 14 hour drive over basically dirt roads (and thats going faster than you should), plus another full day of driving the 2nd day. easily over 20 hours of being tossed around. I was pleasantly surprised that we were actually able to catch a flight on the way back (khorog to dushanbe). I was beginning to believe that this flight didn't even exist. The details were sketchy at best. I'm not quite sure why they can't simply charter a chopper from Dushanbe all the way to camp. It would seem that this could be done for just about as much as you pay for "transportation fees" already. This would make the entire experience more enjoyable, and save a lot of time. Maybe even enough to squeeze in another group of hunters during the season.

then the hunting... you always hear of everyone in camp tagging out withing 1-2 days, and you think "not me, I'm going to take my time" then you get there and see that there is actually TONS of game and almost no reason NOT to shoot something within the first day or two. I guess you can be picky and try to squeeze out a few more inches on your ram, but there are good rams to be found fairly easy. As others have said, the guides seem to always be in a rush. Which is just how they do things. They are very good and work hard nonetheless.

So its not that we wanted to hunt longer than 3 days and didn't, its that there was really no reason to. Everyone else had tagged out by day 2 with a ram and an ibex. Same story for the group that was there before us. I imagine its like this for 90% of the hunters.

The quality and qty of animals is really superb. It really is an amazing place.

The operation is well run. No issues at all with the guides or staff. The Hunting Consortium does a good job with making sure you are taken care of during each leg of the journey. I guess now that I think about it, I might go back. It would have to be someone I could travel well with, and knows what he's in for.

thanks Kathy! thanks again for all of your help.


Just a few more tidbits of info that come to mind for those thinking of doing this hunt:

Tagging out early and heading back to Dushanbe does have its benefits (besides being able to breathe normally again). It gives your rep a chance to get all export/import paperwork in order. We had all of our paperwork (including export permits for the wolves, which I thought couldn't happen in time) ready to go before we left Dushanbe. The hides were nice and dry, and the skulls very clean. We were able to breeze right thru customs in LAX. I imagine this depends on who you get from USFW, but we had no problems.

In my opinion there is no need for an import broker if you are able to bring back your trophies with you. Worst case scenario, you have an issue along the way, then have a broker that you can contact and help with things at that point. The paperwork is pretty straight forward and easy to fill out.

Oh and Turkish Airlines is simply awesome. Quickly becoming my favorite airline.

Congratulations on the trophies and the great hunt. The video helps in understanding the difficulties of the hunt. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome video & pics, well done on a great hunt.

Bobby,
Absolutely fantastic, great ram, ibex, and wolf.
The country looks spectacular,the video was great, along with the pictures, and report!

I really enjoyed your video. Great animals. Tough running shot on your wolf. Congrats!

thanks guys I appreciate it

The video is great ,THANK YOU ,i can see part of the country and culture trough your video ,very very interesting .We will have to fil our expeditions and post here now.

Congratulations Bobby to you and family!!!
Well done as always and it looks it was an adventure indeed

BEAUTIFUL VIDEO!!!

awesome video and a great adventure Thanks for posting this.

Superb video... truly gives a hunter contemplating this trip a feel for what he/she can expect in camp and the field. Very well done and produced. Looked like a great adventure. I don't remember any other reports with wolves thrown in the bag. Was it considered unusual to kill two on a trip like this?

thank you. while editing the video there is always more you wish you would have gotten footage of, but it covered all of the basics of the trip.

and yes I think we were lucky to get a shot at a wolf period, and getting two was very lucky. I think they had taken two total the whole season before these. No one else in camp with us shot a wolf.

Congrats on the trophies.....I enjoyed that video very much.

Superb, thank you for posting.

Awesome video and trophies, congrats! These Marco Polo hunt reports are making me salivate. Just a little out of reach for me right now, but I'll be back there in November of 2014 hunting them with clients. And I share your feelings on the Ibex, hunting them was amazing and the highlight of my trip!


Something of note - There are other areas in Tajikistan that aren't quite as difficult to get to. When I was there in February our car ride to camp was only about 7 hours in a comfortable SUV. The ride out was even shorter due to going downhill for the last few hours. I can say I was still exhausted when I got to camp, but mostly because of the change in altitude. I felt fine the following day.

Congrats again!

Greg

Incredible! Thanks for sharing. That is a "dream" hunt.

Great video. Very still and smooth. Amazing animals. That's a gutsy hunt in many regards.

A big congrats to you on this adventure and your superb trophies.

The footage of the big boys together running away from the camera is truly awesome. As mentioned above, this short video covered a little of everything. Very well done.

Congratulations!! I really enjoyed the video. It brought back great memories as I did the hunt in 2007. And I totally agree with you - It was a great experience but I wouldn't do it again. The travel is just brutal. We did the 18 hour van ride from Bishkek and with 3 breakdowns it turned into 27 hours. Brutal!!! We only hunted 2 days and all took MP and ibex and we were certainly glad to get out of the altitude. Again congrats on a great hunt and excellent trophies. I'm sure you will remember it forever.

Doug

Thank you bobby7321 for the video.

Can you let us know which outfitter did you use in Tajikistan ?

What is the name of the camp ?

Augustin

The Hunting Consortium, and the Hot Springs camp.

Nice hunt!Congratulations!!

Awesome Trophys. Congrats

Really nicely put together video. Well done on your trophies.

As Jim Shockey would say, "WHAT A HUNT!"

thank you. I'm hooked on ibex. Bezoar December 2014

Awesome video & great trophies. Thanks for sharing.

I haven't logged on here in a long time. Glad I did today. What a great hunt video. Congrats! That's one big hunt on my bucket list.

One of the best reports I've seen on AR - great hunt. AIU

superb shot on the wolf, congratulations on some fantastic trophies and thank you for sharing.Would you post some details on rifle calibres scopes projectile factory/handloads etc please.

quote:

Originally posted by sws:
Superb, thank you for posting.

+1

quote:

Originally posted by Shukaree:
superb shot on the wolf, congratulations on some fantastic trophies and thank you for sharing.Would you post some details on rifle calibres scopes projectile factory/handloads etc please.

thank you.
here are some quick specs

.30-378 weatherby mag. (rebarreled by Hart)
nightforce scope (1000 yard velocity reticle)
200 gr CEB MTH (will not fit in the magazine, these suckers are LOOOONNGGGG)
102 gr H1000
this combo works very well and happens to be just about dead-on with the velocity reticle

.300 wsm by HS-Precision
swarovski z3 scope
168 gr TTSX
65 gr IMR 4350
my most trustworthy rifle and load. Also just happens to line up perfectly with the z3 BRH reticle when zero'd at 200. (200, 300, 400, 500)

Great video ,great report one of the best ever .I will never hunt outside Argentina ,but this videos makes me dream about it .Thank you .

great video and an amazing bunch of trophies, thanks for sharing, love those long range shots!

Seems as though someone has poached my video and put it up as their own on YouTube to try and sell the hunt...

Marcopolosheephunting.com is the "uploader"

With a little Whois domain search come to find out its the folks at The Hunting Consortium. Sent them an email a week ago, still no response, and video is still up. Really pisses me off.

That sucks. They are supposedly reputable.